Sean Penn May Face Real Trouble for El Chapo Interview

Actor and Leftist social activist Sean Penn traveled to the jungles of Mexico to meet with the notorious Sinaloa  Cartel fugitive Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.  The day after Guzman was re-apprehended by Mexico authorities, Rolling Stone published an article online of Sean Penn's interview.

This encounter was supposed to have been a win-win.  Despite his fugitive status after escaping from Mexican prison last spring, El Chapo can still act like a billionaire by rubbing elbows with a Hollywood star.  Meanwhile, Penn gets free media for his close encounter with a drug lord, burnishes his progressive credentials and plays the part of a journalist.

Well, the secret meeting between El Chapo and Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, did not work out exactly as planned.  Now Penn has more to worry about then brief vulnerability of his body parts. 

 Penn's meeting aided authorities in the capture of Guzman. Oops. It is unclear if Penn was the willing dupe of Mexican and American law enforcement or if his activities just tipped off the federales. 

Some might argue that Penn has nothing to fear from the government, because he was being a journalist.  Not so much.  Rolling Stone gave final editorial authority to El Chapo. Remarkably, the drug kingpin did not require any changes to the piece.  An independent journalist pursuing the truth does not give the editorial right of first refusal to a interviewee.  

But this is a dual jurisdiction situation. The Mexican authorities are not constrained by notions of First Amendment freedom of the press. 

Consider the complication about concealing or harboring a fugitive. Per criminal defense attorney Page Pate, one must do more than have a clandestine meeting with a fugitive for 18 USC 1071 harboring or concealing a fugitive to apply.  However, if Penn gave money to El Chapo for security or shared contact to evade authorities then he would be criminally liable.  There might be complications in Mexican law.  So Penn should not play on vacationing in sunny Mexico anytime soon.

Yet even if Penn may not face the pen for his El Chapo interview, Mediaite points out that G-men may want to debrief Penn based upon issues raised during his interview, like how El Chapo told him of companies which accept illegal investments, details about El Chapo's security (as Penn was not blindfolded in transit to his close encounter) and insight on El Chapo's drug operation. 

Considering how Penn's pen led the police to El Chapo, Penn may be safer in the pen rather than exposed to retaliation from Sinaloa sympathizers.  But then there is Mexican prison gangs to worry about. 

In that case, Penn may reprise his role as Spicoli: "Dude, that's my skull-- I'm so wasted". 

But this time, the stoner line might take on an entirely new context. 

h/t: Mediaite

Donald Trump and US-Mexico Soccer Hype

In order to promote the US versus Mexico men's soccer match, Fox Soccer superimposed images of prior international games between the teams with selected speeches by 2016 Republican Presidential Donald Trump.




There was adverse reaction on social media to this Trump pump up video.

Reliably liberal sources like the Huffington Post vexed that Donald Trump is not a proper representation of American Patriotism and worry that it might inspire xenophobic fan chants worse than "dos a cero" (referring to Mexican losses in international matches against the US).

But such knee jerk liberalism ignores the inspiration of the Fox Soccer ad.  In September TV Azteca produced a pump up Mexican Soccer video which exploited more sharped edged Trump-isms on Mexicans.





 It would seem that some trolls on social media and the Lamestream Media can not take tongue in cheek hype and worry about how America is perceived in the world.

Perhaps a more soothing  and politically correct portrayal of American patriotism today is conveyed by President Barack Obama bicycling.

Some SNAP Food For Thought

Despite the happy news reports from the Lamestream Media that the economy is on the mend and the end of the housing meltdown, a record number of Americans are on food stamps.  In 2012, the federal government spent $74.6 billion on food stamps, which was increase of 70% from the amount spent prior to the 2008 downturn.   Now 15% of the populace or 47.8 million people on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

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 In this artificially austere environment, the Obama Administration continues sharing the SNAP program for illegal
aliens. 
  


Judicial Watch has exposed documenst from the U.S. Department of Agriculture of Spanish language advertising campaign sent to the Mexican embassy advising people how to apply for food stamps in the United States.  The salient detail is a statement that is both bolded and underlined  which notes: “You need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children.”

So a government that is so supposedly cash strapped that it is laying off air traffic controllers,  government contractors and risking military readiness continues a campaign for what the politically correct Obama Administration (and the White House stenographers working for the Associated Press) would label  "undocumented immigrants."   Or as Jay Leno joked, "undocumented Democrats."



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Rather than appealing to Mexicans, maybe we should target our advertising to give succor to Chavistas, as America is currently being run like a banana republic, albeit without the comfy upscale clothing.         SEE MORE at DCBarroco.com

Obama's Vacation from Common Sense

Recently, it was reported that President Obama’s daughter Malia took a Spring break vacation to Oaxaca, Mexico. Although the Lamestream Media dutifully ignored the news item, but the White House prevailed on the press to scrub the story.

Coverage of children in the White House can be somewhat tricky. Whenever possible, all politicians want to project a positive family image, as it humanizes them and the photo ops create a warm fuzzy emotional connection with some voters. But children are not all cute and cuddly as they grow up and this is compounded when living in the penumbra of the national spotlight.

Generally, the private lives of political families should be respected if they are ancillary to the political process. As long as individuals are not stepping out into the spotlight on their own, like Meghan McCain’s media strip tease during the 2008 campaign until today, they should not receive celebrity scrutiny per se. But that does not mean that the First Family is immune to criticism either.

READ MORE at the DCBarroco website